A Lost Fantasy

 

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Aladdin and his Fun House gave Riverview Park an intriguing personality 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Megan McKinney

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Wouldn’t it be marvelous if we had an amusement park on the North Side of town? We did. Nobody talks about it now and it’s been virtually forgotten. However, from 1904 through 1967 Riverview Park was located at Belmont and Western Avenues and was said to be The World’s Largest Amusement Park.  

 

Here’s a ticket

 

riverviewparkchicago.com

And this was the entrance

 

Riverview had everything one could want in an amusement park, including several roller coasters, a fun house, carousel, Ferris wheel, bumper cars—big and little—a tunnel of love and even a freak show with “the world’s only 4 legged girl.”  Let’s see what we can find (aside from the freak show).

 

 The delightful in-town amusement park offered an abundance of safe rides for children 

 

 As well as scary rides for everyone, including  Blue Streak

 

credit: newberry

The Velvet Coaster

 

credit:NationalAmusementParkHistoricalAssociation

And The Top Roller Coaster

 

And here’s another scary ride

 

Yet another

 

And we don’t want to go near this one

 

Certainly not at night

There were bumper car rides for little kids

 

Bumper car rides for Really Big kids

 

 

And rides for just having a good time with the guys

 

Here’s the Tunnel of Love we promised. But we won’t go  inside.

 

 

Riverview Park from the sky. Maybe it was The World’s Largest Amusement Park.  

 

And these are the Riverview Park Clowns of 1925.

 

 

 

 

Author photo: Robert F. Carl